Can Drew Willy and the Blue Bombers bump their slump against the Tiger-Cats Saturday night?

While the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are 6-6 on the year and have a better record than any East Division team, they may be facing the CFL's biggest crisis at the moment. Thanks to their offseason move to the West Division following Ottawa's entrance into the league, the team's in last place rather than first, and their current three-game losing streak is the longest (non-Ottawa division) in the CFL. Will they be able to turn things around when they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Saturday (6:30 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3)? The answer may depend on the play of quarterback Drew Willy.

Having Willy available at all for this game is a tremendous boon for the Bombers, as his shoulder injury two weeks ago against B.C. looked bad. He left the game and was replaced by inexperienced and ineffectual backup Brian Brohm, and that made things look bad for the team going forward. The injury turned out to be just a sprain, though, and the team's bye week arrived at just the right time. As Judy Owen of The Canadian Press writes, while his teammates were enjoying the time off, Willy was in Winnipeg rehabbing his shoulder:

That could be excellent news for Winnipeg. On the year, Willy has thrown for 2,977 passing yards, second in the league, and he's completed an impressive 65.6 per cent of his passes. He has the Bombers averaging 8.0 yards per pass, second-best in the league, and they have the third-best team completion rate (64.9 per cent) and the fourth-best passing yards per game (252.4). Willy has thrown 11 interceptions and just 12 touchdowns, which is concerning, but by and large, he's done very well for a guy in his first year as a starter, and he's justified the Bombers' decision to trade for him before he hit free agency. Funnily enough, Willy wasn't the team's first choice this offseason; they first made attempts to land Zach Collaros (who will be starting against him for Hamilton Saturday) and Henry Burris (who wound up in Ottawa). With Collaros battling injuries and Burris struggling with an expansion team, Willy's had the best season to date of the three, though.

However, Willy's play hasn't been quite as good lately, and that's been part of why the team's struggled. While he completed 66.6 per cent of his passes against B.C. before getting hurt, he threw for just 88 yards, and while his Banjo Bowl showing was impressive (360 yards, two touchdowns, a 77.8 per cent completion rate), he also threw two bad interceptions late in the game, which helped doom the Bombers. The week before in the Labour Day Classic, he threw for just 171 yards with an interception. The losses haven't been all about Willy, as the Winnipeg ground game has gone in the tank and the defence has also had its struggles, but this team will need him to elevate his play to its previous level to have much of a chance at making the postseason. Will he be able to step it up Saturday night?